YOU CAN'T HACK PERSONAL GROWTH

Last week I went to a University of Auckland Alumni event, and had the pleasure of meeting the CEO and Founder of Renaissance Leadership, Ben Andersen. We got talking about executive coaching and personal growth and Ben said something that resonated so strongly with me: “you can’t hack personal growth”.

Living in Silicon Valley where you can hack just about anything, Ben couldn’t be more spot on.

I’ve always been a big believer that personal growth happens mostly when we’re open and committed to the journey. But what does that really mean?

Personal growth doesn’t need to only happen when you’re at a juncture of your life and trying to figure out your next steps. Personal growth should happen on a continuous basis because you have a certain level of curiosity to get to know yourself better – yes the person you go to bed with each and every night – and that you truly believe that there is a better version of yourself that you can continue to reinvent yourself into each and every day. And by the way, this ‘better version of yourself’ is going to define your levels of success in everything you do in life.

So why can’t I hack personal growth? You can’t hack it because if you don’t go through the journey, then you simply cannot come out stronger on the other side. In fact, there won’t even be an ‘other side’. Discovering, learning, and growth happens in almost a building block method for humans. Our brains are equipped to build on concepts and create joint meaning, and then extrapolate that into meaning for ourselves. If we aren’t allowing ourselves the opportunity to do this, then we aren’t going to give ourselves space in our lives for personal growth.

I’m sure many of you are wondering in this ever-changing world of ours, “If I can’t hack the journey, can I expedite it?”

There are several ways to speed up the journey. You could read a bunch of self-help books (yes, I just said that), you could go to a few retreats (meditation / yoga / discovery) and/or to be most effective and really get the results you’re looking for, you can hire a coach depending on which stage of your life you are in. But wait, can you even afford to hire a coach?

So lets first start with – who are you?

Are you a student? A recent grad? An individual contributor in the corporate world? An entrepreneur? A manager or leader in some big corporation? Depending on who you are, your path for personal growth will look different. Your access to resources will also be different.

If you’re a student or recent grad looking to expedite your ability to reach success and do truly great things, then the most effective and affordable solution for you is Experiential Insight. We’ve taken the executive coaching model off its pedestal and we’re are making it accessible to students and recent grads in a way that is disrupting the entire student development space.